Daylight robbery

United just managed to avoid their third successive home defeat by the skin of their collective teeth, coming back from 2-0 down to draw with two goals in the final ten minutes. United struggled against a well-organised Torquay side and it looked like the same old story when David Graham, looking at least a couple of yards offside, broke through to break the deadlock in the 48th minute. Things looked even worse for the home team when Torquay broke away and former Us transfer target Tony Bedeau headed home to double the score. This led to a large throng of United supporters to stream towards the exit, missing Oxford's first goal two minutes later when Manny Omoyinmi latched onto a long Bobby Ford pass to prod the goal beyond Kevin Dearden. This led to a United revival and after some sustained pressure the ball broke for Paul Powell to slot the ball home from twelve yards with just two minutes remaining for his first goal of the season. Oxford almost snatched the victory, but some desparate defending by Torquay ensured that the points were shared.

United made two changes from last week's starting line-up. Adi Viveash came in to central defence to make his debut with Matt Bound dropping to the bench, and Dean Whitehead came into the right side of midfield, David Oldfield moving up front to partner Andy Scott in place of the injured Steve Basham. Whitehead only lasted the first 45 minutes, Powell replacing him at halftime. Omoyinmi replaced Dave Savage after 62 minutes which started to inject some urgency into United's forays, but the real turning point came on 80 minutes, just after Torquay went 2-0 up, when Scott was taken off and Jefferson Louis came on for his second first team appearance. It wasn't so much Louis' presence that aided Oxford, as Scott's absence.

Referee Eddie Evans from Manchester made some bizarre decisions, but both sides suffered equally from his ineptitude, which is more than can be said for linesman M Darlow, who is obviously oblivious to the offside rule. The attendance was just 5,260, despite this being the first Kid A Quid match of the season, but it was still the best crowd in the division today, and it was also more than attended swindon's 2-1 defeat at home to Port Vale. A match report can be found here.

As a result of this point United have climbed two places to 15th in the table. Next week's opponents, Boston United, remain bottom after drawing 0-0 at Kidderminster. Rushden went top after beating Southend 3-0, whilst Hartlepool drop to second after drawing 2-2 at Swansea, for whom Nick Cusack scored the first goal. Lincoln go fourth after beating Scunthorpe 1-0. Nigel Jemson scored Shrewsbury's winner as they came from a goal down to beat Orient 2-1. The other Div. 3 games saw Exeter lose 3-1 at home to Bournemouth and Hull City get their first win of the season, 2-1 at Cambridge. The only other former United scorer in the League was Andy Thomson, who scored the final goal in QPR's 4-0 win at Mansfield.

Fevered Gulls

The day's other fixture of note took place in the morning, when Raging Fever played host to Barnstaple Gulls. Despite having a two player numerical advantage and the away team travelling since seven in the morning, Fever showed no leniency to the Devon outfit and ran out convincing winners by 11-0. Gary Dreadlocks Silver, in between crocking his own players, scored five goals, and fellow striker Jon Matthews and Neil Wakefield scored two, Jon WGL got one and supersub Domi Crowder scored a spectacularly stunning solo effort. Manager Gunth didn't bother getting out of bed, so confident was he of victory, but the Fever defence of Joelie the goalie, me, Paul SOJ, Gary Butler and Nick stood firm to keep a rare clean sheet. Fever again wore the outstanding Juventus strip. Next fixture is away to York if anyone can be bothered to play.